Alvaro Mantilla Gimenez wrote: > Travers Buda wrote: > >> *snip* >> >> Just tell him that OpenBSD in the stead of HP-UX will be >> cheaper, faster to setup, and easier to maintain (because >> of your experience with Open.) Both OpenBSD and HP-UX can >> do LDAP, yes, but it's yourself that makes the difference here. >> >> Oh, and you have much more freedom in picking out your hardware >> (back to the cheap tangent.) >> >> -- >> Travers Buda > > It would be wonderful convince my boss with that argument....but the > next question he will ask is: "What if....you die tomorrow?? Who can > maintain the system??...
What if you go with HP/UX (or ANYTHING else) and you die tomorrow? Answer is always the same: you have to have more than one capable person on staff who knows the product. It's not just about your death, of course...you DO want to be able to take some time off without having the phone stuck to your ear, right? Cross training people on OpenBSD is much easier -- I bet you have more OpenBSD-capable HW laying around than you do HP/UX capable HW. People can practice at home..and even put systems to use at home. Your resulting system will have to be documented. People will have to look at that documentation and verify its completeness. It doesn't matter what OS and apps you run, you will have to document HOW you implemented your systems. Contrary to many boss's expectation, they can't just pick up the phone and have your replacement magically walk through the door and pick up where you left off. Using a commercial OS doesn't change this, your IMPLEMENTATION must be documented. Your real question is not the OS, but rather the applications that you are running (LDAP in your case). Your hypothetical replacement will spend a lot more time learning your LDAP application and implementation than they will the OS it is running on. Nick.
